Some Notes on Our Native Birds. 27 
the songs with which the air is melodious as well as the 
other birds. If, tired of the base ball game, some day, at 
Morton Park, you go to the top of the hill, you will scarcely 
fail to hear him in the trees along by its edge. 
One December da^ last winter I had a glimpse of what 
looked like a brown thrush, in a tree near my house. As 
he usually seeks a warmer climate early in October, there 
was the possibility of mistake. But in the following month, 
when there were several successive days of extremely cold 
weather, and the ground was so covered with snow as to 
make the discovery of food difficult for the birds, he made 
his appearance again, and for several days I had good oppor¬ 
tunity of observing him. He was fond of perching in the fir 
trees. The stress of cold weather overcame his shyness, and 
at times he would sun himself in plain view, and occasionally 
fly to the ground near the kitchen entrance, and amicably 
share the crumbs with the English sparrows. Once he fed 
at the swill-can. Now and then he would peck away at 
some particular spot of the frozen ground, as a robin does 
when searching for worms. He had a way of throwing his 
body forward as he brought his bill down, so that he 
apparently struck quite a forcible, hammer-like blow. He 
plainly did not enioy the weather, and you may be sure 
that he did not sing. As soon as a thaw came, and the 
ground was uncovered, he disappeared. Ashe lived through 
that very cold period, I presume he survived till spring. 
But when his companions rejoined him then, what a story 
he must have told them of his experiences, and what tra¬ 
ditions of Arctic suffering on the part of their ancestor 
will be handed down to his descendants. 
I have derived much pleasure in trying to identify the 
numerous varieties of warblers—active, trim, finely colored 
little fellows, but strangely misnamed, as most of them are 
indifferent singers I take pleasure in watching the marsh 
wrens in the rushes at Easton’s Pond, with their curiously in¬ 
complete and disappointing song, if such it can be called; in 
admiring the rich coloring of the orioles, and listening to their 
